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Saturday, May 09, 2009

Time for more pup treats!

We were way overdue for homemade pup treats, so I needed to carve out time to get into the kitchen today and come up with another batch to satisfy our poor treat-deprived (yeah... right!) Gus and Max.

After checking our the pantry to see what was handy, I threw together these Peanut Butter and Rye Biscuit Treats. I started out with a combo of dry ingredients - whole-wheat flour, cornmeal, old-fashioned rolled oats and a bit of rye flour to give them a variety of flavor and texture. To make the dough a little easier to work with, I did add some nonfat dry milk powder, which will also add a tender quality to the treats. I also included a couple teaspoons of baking powder to give them a tiny lift as they baked

To moisten those ingredients and form a cohesive dough, I simply used water and a secret agent to really lure those pups in... creamy peanut butter! For a light dose of sweetness and color, we also mixed in a single robust tablespoon of molasses. Once everything has been stirred around the bowl, you should find the dough somewhat sticky - turn it out onto a floured surface and punch it around, adding enough additional flour to get you to a consistency where the dough isn't sticky, but isn't bone dry either (slightly tacky to the touch is fine). Try and keep the dough to about 1/4" thickness when you are rolling it out - this will keep the treats a consistence size and won't take too long time to bake. Use your favorite appropriately sized cutter to divvy out the dough into treats - I went with a bone, circle, heart and of course, a miniature fire hydrant, shaped cutters. Don't throw out the scraps once you cut out your first treats either; keep re-rolling the dough to use it all up!

I think I ended up with almost three and a half sheet pans worth of treats! If your oven can't handle that many, the pans can sit, covered, until the first ones bake through. We keep most of the baked treats in the freezer to extend their life since the pups really don't get that many (plus we make sure to share them with other pups!), but you could also halve all of the ingredients for a smaller batch. These came out quite crunchy, though they are not too hard as they easily snap to break them into smaller pieces. If your pups like their biscuits extra crunchy, instead of pulling them out to cool, leave them in the oven and just turn the oven off, with the door slightly propped open, to let them slowly cool down completely.